IBM is well under way with a design-led transformation that will create a lasting effect in the company.
“It is critical that we bring a new set of skills into IBM. It’s not just about transforming people that are here, it is about injecting new critical thinking skills and formal training in the art and methods of design thinking,” said Phil Gilbert, general manager, IBM Design Studios.
Gilbert was speaking at the opening of the Dublin Design Studio, which will be one of three flagship sites, with Austin, Texas and Shanghai.
As part of this transformation process, Gilbert said that over a two year process some 40 odd products were integrated into four, with major improvements through using human-centred design principles.
“The market rewarded us for that,” Gilbert said.
Rethink client experience
In December 2011, the company CEO Ginni Rommeti said that IBM needed to rethink its client experience.
As the efforts began and met with initial success, Gilbert said that confidence grew to be able to transform all of IBM into a design-led organisation.
Demand from within the organisation also grew as early projects showed the potential. Senior management attended design camps to acquaint them with the transformation and its potential.
This led to an organisation-wide effort that in 2013 became an ambition to hire 1,000 designers in five years to transform IBM into a ‘design thinking’ organisation.
Gilbert said that this is one of the biggest transformations of its kind. He maintains though, that he does not yet know if it will be a success.
“Ask me in 2020,” he said.
Long term goal
“The journey we are on is not about building a better product this year, it’s not about building a better product next year,” said Gilbert, characterising the long-term, organisation-wide shift in thinking. Gilbert says that it is easy to hire a team of designers to build a product over a year or two.
“What’s hard is to build a sustainable culture of design. To build a culture that will not die out. That’s what we have to do.”
Gilbert said that the business value of design and its impact on customer experience is great. Once that recognition was there, he said that internal buy-in to the transformation programme became apparent.
“We’ve talked about the business value of design and how can you measure it, and monitor it. We were blessed with a senior leadership that, by design, did not burden our programme in the first two or three years with outcome oriented methods. We have only been measured by end process methods.”
“We are not forcing any team in IBM to join, but we have been oversubscribed since about the first month or so.”
“Virtually every team within the programme is in the areas of our strategic imperatives.”
Transform industry
Gilbert said that the aim was to transform industries and professions through the use of data, with enterprise IT continuing to transform with the use of cloud computing and organisations everywhere transforming through social and mobile technologies.
“Virtually all of our design emphasis has been on products that roll up into those areas.”
Gilbert argued that IBM’s recent results supported this transformation. While acknowledging that the headline figures were not stellar, the breakdown showed that the initial design-led efforts were already bearing fruit.
Gilbert said that those areas grew 16% year on year in 2014, and now make up 27% of IBM’s revenues. Gilbert said that it was a cause for optimism among IBM management despite the top-line figures.
“Where we have invested in design, we are taking share in the marketplace — I don’t think that is a coincidence.”
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